THE  DRIFT  OF  *  * 
BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 
PAST  AND  PRESENT 


IRA  MAURICE  PRICE 


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AMERICAN   BAPTIST 
PUBLICATION   SOCIETY 


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THE  DPIFT  Or  ^%awL8t«^ 

BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 
PAST  AND  PRESENT 


IRA  MAURICE  PRICE 

PROFESSOR   IN    THE 
UNIVERSITY   Or   CHICAGO 


■£- 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  GRirriTII  &  ROWLAND  PRESS 
1900 


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Copyright  igoo  by  the 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society 


jfrom  tbc  Society's  own  press 


NOTE 
%* 

Tli  in  tAa 'dress  was  delivered  at  the 

(National  ""Baptist  Anniversaries,  'Detroit, 

(Mich.,  May  26,   /goo.      *As   it   appears   in   the 

^Annual  T^eport  of  the  'Publication  Society  it  contains  a 

few  typographical  errors  which  are  here  corrected. 

tA  partial  list  of  "Literature"  on  the 

general  subject  has  been  appended. 


LITERATURE— A  SELECTION  ONLY 


On  the  History  of  biblical  research: 

Diestel,  L.,  "  Geschichte  des  Altai  Testament es  in  dcr  Christ- 
lichen  Kirche."     Jena,  1869. 

Wogue,  L.,  "  Histoire  Jc  la  Bible  ct  fEougese  TJiblique 
jusqu'a  110s  Jours."     Paris,  1881. 

Farrar,  F.  W.,  "History  of  Interpretation"  (Bampton 
Lectures,  1885).     London,  1886. 

ON  THE  MODERN  PERIOD: 

Lias,  J.  J.,  "The  Principles  of  Biblical  Criticism." 
London,  1893. 

Zenos,  A.  O,  "  The  Elements  of  the  Higher  Criticism." 
New  York,  1895. 

Briggs,  C.  A.,  "The  Study  of  Holy  Scripture."  New 
York,  1899.    Chap.  IV.,  X.,  XII. 

Price,  Ira  M.,  "The  Monuments  and  the  Old  Testa- 
ment," second  edition.    Chicago,  1900. 

Robertson,  Jas.,  "  The  Early  Religion  of  Israel,"  second 
edition.     1892. 

Kirkpatrick,  A.  F.,  "  The  Divine  Library  of  the  Old 
Testament."    Cambridge,  1891. 

On  the  Results  of  Criticism: 

Moulton,  R.  G.,  "  The  Bible  as  Literature."  New  York, 
1896. 

McCurdy,  J.  F.,  "  History,  Prophecy,  and  the  Monu- 
ments," three  volumes.    New  York,  1894-1900. 

Popper,  J.,  "  Der  Ursprung  des  Monotheismus."     1879. 

Smith,  H.  P.,  "  Biblical  Scholarship  and  Inspiration." 
1891. 

Smith,  W.  R.,  "  Lectures  on  the  Religion  of  the  Semites," 
second  edition.     1895. 

Batten,  L.  W.,  "  The  Old  Testament  from  the  Modern 
Point  of  View,"  N.  Y.,  1899. 


THE  DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 


THE  most  serviceable  friends  of  the  Bible  are 
its  interpreters  and  critics.  The  most  valuable 
critics  of  the  Bible  are  found  in  the  ranks  of  its 
most  ardent  students.  The  most  ardent  students 
of  the  Bible  are  they  who  drink  deepest  at  its 
fountains  of  truth.  The  thoroughly  Christian 
critic  is  the  most  effective  and  far-reaching  critic 
of  the  sacred  Scriptures. 

If,  however,  there  were  no  factious  criticisms  of 
this  book,  no  coldly  scientific  analyses  of  its  parts, 
and  no  antagonistic  blows  at  its  claims  and  its 
teachings,  we  should  not  be  obliged  so  carefully 
to  examine  its  foundation  and  the  character  of  its 
structure.  But,  fortunately  for  the  cause  of  truth, 
the  spirit  of  this  questioning  age  is  storming  it  at 
every  point,  and  testing  its  weakness  and  its 
strength,  so  that  its  devoted  friends  are  compelled 
to  erect  such  defenses  as  will  most  successfully 
withstand  these  assaults. 

There  has  been  no  period  in  history  when  close, 

7 


8  THE  DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 

minute,  and  scientific  study  of  the  Bible  has  played 
such  a  role  in  literary  and  religious  life  as  we  of 
to-day  see  with  our  own  eyes.  There  has  been 
no  age  when  such  beneficent  results  have  been 
wrought  out  as  these  which  we  count  as  the  most 
precious  product  of  modern  biblical  research. 

In  the  limited  space  at  my  command  I  wish  to 
sketch  in  outline  merely  (1)  the  great  periods  of 
Bible  study  and  interpretation  in  the  past  and  some 
of  their  gifts  to  the  present ;  (2)  the  characteristics 
of  the  present  period;  and  (3)  some  of  the  prob- 
able permanent  results  of  this  present  critical  era. 

I.   THE   GREAT  PERIODS   OF  THE  PAST. 

The  stretch  of  time  from  Ezra  to  the  present 
day  is  replete  with  methods  of  biblical  interpreta- 
tion and  criticism.  To  a  lover  of  the  Scriptures 
these  methods  have  a  peculiar  fascination.  Each 
successive  period  reveals  a  groping  after  the  truth 
by  some  new  and  untried  method,  which  usually 
owed  its  origin  to  the  intellectual  or  spiritual  de- 
mands of  the  times.  Each  successive  period 
carried  out  its  methods  with  commendable  perse- 
verance, and  left  us  a  certain  small  precipitate  of 
value;  but  the  bulk  of  their  findings  and  their 
exegeses  have  been  piled   away  among  the  for- 


THE   DRIFT  OF   BIBLICAL   RESEARCH  9 

gotten  and  useless  tomes  of  the  past.  This  long 
expanse  of  time  readily  falls  into  seven  commonly 
recognized  periods,  characterized  rather  by  their 
methods  than  by  chronology,  and  existing,  some 
of  them,  side  by  side  for  long  centuries. 

1.  The  first  great  period  of  biblical  interpreta- 
tion was  the  Rabbinic,  beginning  with  Ezra,  and 
reaching  well  down  into  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
method  in  vogue  required  that  emphasis  be  placed 
on  the  letter  of  the  law, — that  the  Old  Testament, 
in  its  very  letters,  their  number  and  arrangement 
and  numerical  values,  was  of  supreme  importance. 
For  example,  the  sum  total  of  the  numerical  values 
of  the  Hebrew  words  of  Gen.  49  :  10,  "  Shiloh 
come,"  equals  the  sum  total  of  the  letters  forming 
■ «  Messiah, ' '  hence,  « '  Shiloh  "  is  '  *  Messiah. ' '  The 
day  of  the  atonement  was  the  only  day  on  which 
Satan  could  bring  an  accusation,  because  the 
values  of  the  Hebrew  word  for  Satan  equal  three 
hundred  and  sixty-four,  and  the  extra  day,  or 
three  hundred  and  sixty-fifth,  was  the  day  of 
atonement.  The  law  had  six  hundred  and  thirteen 
precepts,  because  the  numerical  value  of  the  word 
for  incense  equals  six  hundred  and  thirteen.  This 
system  of  juggling  with  numbers  soon  led  to  a 
letter- worship,  to    an    idolatry  of    the    law,   to    a 


10  THE   DRIFT  OF   BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 

formalism  from  which  the  spiritual  entirely  dis- 
appeared. The  self-confident  spirit  of  rabbinism 
buried  the  Scriptures  and  things  spiritual  and 
divine  under  a  mountain  of  human  invention  and 
tradition.  Out  of  these  conditions  sprang  Pharisa- 
ism with  all  its  fatal  results.  They  left  us  a  mass 
of  rabbinical  literature,  which  formed  the  basis  of 
most  of  the  later  Jewish  philosophy,  theology,  and 
ethics.  But  there  are  two  results,  and  two  only, 
of  much  value,  remaining  from  this  period  for  the 
student  and  interpreter  of  the  word  of  God:  (1) 
The  Jewish  life  of  more  than  one  thousand  years, 
or  from  400  B.  C.  to  A.  D.  700,  is  portrayed  in 
almost  infinite  detail  in  these  rabbinical  writings ; 
and  (2)  instead  of  cutting  up  and  disarranging 
the  text  of  the  Old  Testament,  they  so  revered  it 
and  protected  it  as  to  keep  it  strictly  intact  for 
succeeding  ages. 

2.  The  second  great  epoch  in  Scripture  interpre- 
tation may  be  called  the  Hellenistic.  It  owed  its 
origin  to  the  contact  between  Hebrew  and  Greek 
thought.  The  Jews  who  had  migrated  to  Egypt  so 
absorbed  the  language  and  learning  of  the  Greeks 
that  they  trampled  upon  the  hedge  which,  under 
the  influence  of  rabbinic  methods,  had  grown  up 
around  the  law.     Their  headquarters  was  Alexan- 


THE   DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH  II 

dria,  one  of  the  great  cosmopolitan  centers,  where 
there  was  a  free  interchange  of  Oriental,  Jewish, 
and  Greek  culture.  Orthodox  Jews,  who  viewed 
with  alarm  these  minglings  of  culture,  sought  for 
some  method  of  harmonizing  Greek  philosophy  and 
the  Old  Testament.  Aristobulus  (about  180  B.  C.) 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  allegorical  method  of 
interpretation  which  found  its  greatest  exponent  in 
Philo.  This  philosopher  maintained  that  the  phi- 
losophy of  Plato  and  even  of  Pythagoras  had  been 
largely  borrowed  from  the  law  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. He  held  that  all  the  tenets  of  the  Greek 
philosophers,  especially  of  Aristotle,  were  to  be 
found  in  Moses  and  the  prophets,  if  one  should 
conduct  his  inquiry  according  to  proper  methods. 
The  whole  system  of  philosophy  wrought  out  by 
Philo  is  either  based  upon  or  largely  influenced  by 
allegory.  The  literal  sense  of  Scripture  was  a 
kind  of  concession  made  to  the  weak  and  ignorant. 
"  The  green  herb  of  the  field,"  in  Genesis,  means 
"that  portion  of  the  mind  which  is  perceptible  only 
by  the  intellect."  To  interpret  literally  the  words, 
"  God  planted  a  garden  in  Eden,"  is  impiety.  It 
means  that  "  God  implants  terrestrial  virtue  in  the 
human  race."  "The  tree  of  life"  is  that  most 
general  virtue  which  some  people  call  "goodness." 


12  THE  DRIFT  OF   BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 

This  method  gave  the  interpreter  a  wide  range  and 
unlimited  liberty.  If  the  literal  sense  did  not  con- 
tradict the  harmonistic  ideas  of  the  interpreter,  it 
was  allowable,  but  by  no  means  probable.  Though 
Philo  was  a  man  of  profound  learning  and  deep 
piety,  his  methods  of  Scripture  interpretation  were 
essentially  vicious.  They  drove  the  Jews  into  a 
slavish  literalism  and  paved  the  way  for  the  ration- 
alism of  Alexandrian  allegory.  The  pernicious 
methods  of  that  age  have  not  entirely  disappeared 
from  the  exegesis  of  our  day. 

3.  The  third  great  method  of  Bible  study  was 
the  Patristic.  It  arose  at  the  close  of  the  first  cen- 
tury, about  the  time  of  Clement  of  Rome  (A.  D. 
95),  and  stretched  down  into  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  church  Fathers  could  not  rid  themselves  of 
the  methods  of  their  days.  Tertullian,  Cyprian, 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  and  Origen,  were  largely 
influenced  by  the  rabbinical  and  allegorical  methods 
current  about  them.  But  one  feature  of  their  in- 
terpretation was  a  distinct  advance  on  their  prede- 
cessors. Origen  and  his  pupils  and  successors 
emphasized  the  importance  of  studying  the  very 
text  of  Scripture,  even  if  that  text  were  a  transla- 
tion. The  school  of  Antioch  took  up  this  one 
valid  principle  of  Origen,  but  totally  discarded  his 


THE   DRIFT  OF   BIBLICAL  RESEARCH  1 3 

allegorical  methods.  It  further  maintained  that 
Scripture  must  be  interpreted  with  due  regard  to 
the  historical  background  and  to  the  conditions 
which  gave  rise  to  its  utterances.  They  gave  close 
attention  to  linguistic  details,  to  the  special  style 
of  each  author,  and  to  the  study  of  each  passage 
or  book  as  a  whole.  Chrysostom,  of  this  same 
school,  added  as  his  personal  contribution  a  method 
of  finding  and  applying  the  spiritual  lessons  of 
each  passage.  But  with  the  close  of  the  fourth 
century  this  remarkable  Syrian  school  passed  away. 
The  Western  branch,  with  Jerome  and  Augustine 
as  the  most  notable  representatives  of  the  patristic 
period,  still  advanced,  discarding  some  of  the 
principles  of  Origen,  but  clinging,  in  the  main,  to 
the  necessity  of  wrestling  with  the  text  itself  to 
secure  its  most  hidden  meaning. 

4.  The  fourth  great  epoch  in  Scripture  interpre- 
tation may  be  called  the  Scholastic,  embracing  the 
period  from  the  twelfth  to  the  sixteenth  centuries. 
From  the  seventh  to  the  twelfth  century  we  have 
five  hundred  years  of  total  barrenness.  "During 
the  scholastic  epoch,"  says  Farrar,  "from  the 
twelfth  to  the  sixteenth  century,  there  are  but  few 
of  the  many  who  toiled  in  this  field  who  added 
a  single  essential  principle,  or  furnished  a  single 


14  THE   DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 

contribution  to  the  explanation  of  the  word  of 
God.  During  these  nine  centuries  we  find  very 
little  except  the  '  glimmerings  and  decays '  of 
patristic  exposition."  The  schoolmen  held  a 
superstitious  and  mechanical  theory  of  inspiration. 
They  were,  almost  to  a  man,  ignorant  of  the  lan- 
guages of  the  Bible,  neglected  history,  especially 
of  Bible  times,  made  exegesis  but  an  arbitrary 
juxtaposition  of  texts  and  an  abuse  of  the  dialectic 
method,  and  presupposed  that  all  Scripture  had  a 
multiplex  sense.  This  dangerous  hypothesis  gave 
great  room  for  the  play  of  their  dialectics.  For 
example,  Thomas  Aquinas  says  that,  "Let  there 
be  light"  may  mean,  historically,  an  act  of  crea- 
tion ;  allegorically,  "Let  Christ  be  love "  ;  anagog- 
ically,  "May  we  be  led  by  Christ  to  glory"  ;  and 
tropologically,  "May  we  be  mentally  illumined  by 
Christ."  "  By  some  this  four- fold  sense  was 
compared  with  the  four  colors  of  the  veil  of  the 
tabernacle,  to  the  four  winds,  to  the  four  rivers 
of  paradise,  to  the  four  legs  of  the  table  of  the 
Lord  "  (Farrar,  p.  295).  The  schoolmen  reveled 
in  such  methods  of  exegesis  and  wove  from 
the  church  Fathers  and  the  Scriptures  the  most 
abstract  and  speculative  results,  often  mingled 
with  the  subtleties  of  Plato  and  Aristotle.     While 


THE  DRIFT  OF   BIBLICAL   RESEARCH  I  5 

this  epoch  has  yielded  us  almost  no  exegetical  re- 
sults, it  has  left  us  some  characters — such  as  Bona- 
ventura,  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  and  Thomas  Aqui- 
nas— who  were  wholly  transformed  by  the  Spirit 
of  God,  and  who  fed  daily  upon  the  simple  truth 
of  the  word,  unmixed  with  the  paralyzing  dialectic 
of  the  times. 

5.  The  fifth  epoch,  the  Reformation,  was  a  day- 
star  in  the  history  of  Scripture  interpretation.  The 
intense  enthusiasm,  learning,  power,  and  great 
good  sense  of  Lorenzo  Valla  (died  1465)  in 
methods  of  Scripture  study,  of  John  Reuchlin 
(died  1522),  the  great  Hebrew  scholar,  and  of 
Erasmus  (died  1536),  the  New  Testament  Greek 
scholar,  prepared  the  way  in  part  for  the  appear- 
ance and  the  great  forward  strides  of  Luther,  and 
for  those  stalwart  champions,  Melanchthon,  Zwin- 
gli,  and  Calvin.  The  fact  that  the  renaissance 
of  learning  had  turned  men's  minds  to  the  study 
of  literature  was  an  aid  in  stirring  up  an  interest  in 
the  investigation  of  the  Bible  itself.  To  do  this, 
however,  required  a  knowledge  of  the  languages 
in  which  its  books  were  written.  The  facilities  for 
doing  just  this  thing  were  already  becoming  avail- 
able, and  independent  Christian  scholars  bent  their 
energies  in  the  direction  of  Scripture  interpretation. 


16  THE   DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 

Without  discussing  any  specified  advances,  I 
will  indicate  some  of  the  principles  of  interpreta- 
tion laid  down  in  that  epoch  which  have  permanent 
value:  (1)  The  necessity  of  philological  and  gram- 
matical knowledge;  (2)  the  importance  of  consid- 
ering times,  circumstances,  and  conditions  in  which 
any  particular  passage  or  book  was  produced;  (3) 
a  careful  observance  of  the  context  before  attempt- 
ing to  interpret  any  given  passage;  (4)  the  need 
of  faith  and  spiritual  illumination  in  addition  to  all 
the  foregoing  qualifications  and  conditions.  Luther 
and  his  coadjutors  insisted  too,  (1)  on  the  supreme 
and  final  authority  of  Scripture;  (2)  on  the  suffi- 
ciency of  Scripture;  (3)  on  the  right  of  private 
judgment. 

6.  The  sixth  period  may  be  termed  the  Dog- 
matic, extending  from  the  Reformation  to  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  boasted 
freedom  of  the  Reformation  was  soon  dethroned 
by  the  bitterness  of  controversies  and  the  bondage 
of  dogmatism.  The  Reformation  freedom  of 
Scripture  interpretation  was  soon  fettered  by  a 
tyrannous  confessionalism,  by  elaborate  systems 
of  doctrine,  and  by  scores  of  creeds.  Almost 
every  city  and  every  system  of  belief  had  its 
creed.     In  1529  we  have  the  Articles  of  Marburg; 


THE   DRIFT  OF   BIBLICAL  RESEARCH  1 7 

1530,  the  Confession  of  Augsburg;  1536,  the 
Wittenberg  Concord;  1537,  Articles  of  Schmal- 
kalden;  1562,  the  thirty-nine  Articles ;  1566,  the 
Confessio  Helvetica  Posterior ;  1580,  the  Formula 
Concordia  of  Lutheranism ;  and  1643,  the  West- 
minster Confession.  The  formulation  of  these 
creeds  and  the  decrees  of  synods  and  councils 
fastened  upon  Christendom  certain  versions  of 
Scriptures  and  specific,  circumscribed  limits  within 
which  an  exegete  could  exercise  his  gifts.  Aris- 
totelian dialectics  and  dogmatics  controlled  the 
thought  of  the  day.  Scripture  was  used  only  as 
embodied  in  great  tomes  of  ecclesiastical  polemics 
and  was  not  supposed  to  yield  any  further  light  to 
investigators. 

While  this  age  of  controversies,  creeds,  dogma- 
tism, and  heresy-hunting  was  paralyzing  the  spirit- 
ual life  of  the  church,  a  few  choice  spirits  arose 
who  turned  the  scale  at  the  end  of  this  period  and 
inaugurated  the  rise  of  a  new  epoch.  Koch  (died 
1669),  of  Leyden,  for  a  true  exegesis,  and  Cap- 
pellus  (died  1658)  for  criticism,  on  the  side  of 
Scripture  interpretation,  among  others,  burst  the 
bonds  of  that  era  and  prepared  the  way  for  the 
modern  period. 

Nearly  two  thousand  years  of  Scripture  interpre- 


18  THE  DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 

tation  did  not  produce  for  the  church  a  set  of  well- 
established  and  sound  principles  of  Scripture  in- 
terpretation. The  Rabbinic,  the  Hellenistic,  the 
Patristic,  the  Scholastic,  the  Reformation,  and  the 
Dogmatic  eras  produced  marvelous  harmoniza- 
tions, endless  controversies,  irreconcilable  bitter- 
ness, great  schools  of  dogmaticians,  fae  finesse  of 
dialectics,  and  unnumbered  tomes  of  so-called  lit- 
erature. But  where  are  their  ponderous  works, 
full  of  vast  erudition,  their  settlement  of  the 
intricate  questions  in  biblical  interpretation,  and 
its  application  to  Christian  life  ?  The  vast  pro- 
portion is  known  by  titles  only,  and  oblivion  has 
rightly  laid  claim  to  most  of  their  dogmatic  utter- 
ances. Only  here  and  there  throughout  this  vast 
stretch  of  time  do  we  find  the  enunciation  of  prin- 
ciples which  will  have  perpetual  value  for  the  in- 
terpretation of  the  Scriptures. 

II.    THE  MODERN  PERIOD. 

The  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  marked  the 
beginning  of  a  new  era  in  biblical  research.  It 
opened  the  door  to  the  modern  period,  which  stands 
quite  alone  in  its  methods  of  biblical  criticism  and 
interpretation.  It  has  gathered  up  and  appro- 
priated the  sound  principles  enunciated  in  every 


THE   DRIFT  OF   BIBLICAL   RESEARCH  19 

preceding  period,  and  has  laid  down  some  rules 
of  its  own,  whose  validity  and  universality  are 
now  being  put  to  the  test.  The  underlying  pur- 
pose of  the  Bible  students  and  critics  of  this  epoch, 
viz,  to  ascertain  the  meaning  of  Scripture,  is  not 
essentially  different  from  that  of  every  preceding 
age.  But  the  difference  in  the  conditions  and 
thought  of  these  times  may  justify  a  brief  sur- 
vey of  the  characteristics  of  the  era  in  which  we 
live. 

1.  One  of  the  first  and  chief  facts  characteristic 
of  this  age  is  the  importance  attached  to  the  study 
of  the  sources.  There  is  no  department  of  science, 
philosophy,  or  theology,  which  does  not  demand 
of  the  scholar  a  careful,  minute,  and  painstaking 
investigation  of  the  sources  of  his  knowledge.  In 
Scripture  study  this  principle  has  already  been 
given  its  fixed  place.  Semler,  Herder,  and  Less- 
ing,  even  in  the  last  century,  insisted  that  the  Bible 
itself  should  be  thoroughly  studied  if  men  were  to 
comprehend  its  import.  This  principle  has  driven 
biblical  scholars  and  critics  of  every  progressive 
school  to  a  severely  minute  examination  of  all  the 
available  sources  of  its  text.  In  a  word,  the  text 
of  the  book  itself,  and  not  creeds,  decrees,  Articles, 
or  Confessions,  is  the  true  source  used  by  the  true 


20  THE   DRIFT  OF   BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 

biblical  critics  and  interpreters  of  this  era.      This 
is  textual,  or  lower  criticism. 

2.  The  same  spirit  that  has  driven  men  to  study 
the  sources  has  carried  along  with  it  certain  scien- 
tific principles  to  be  used  in  their  interpretation. 
The  fact  that  these  sources  are  literature  of  various 
kinds,  subjects  them  to  the  principles  by  which 
every  literature  must  be  studied  and  criticized. 
The  books  of  the  Bible  present  certain  individual 
traits,  such  as  form,  style,  and  vocabulary,  that 
must  be  taken  into  account.  There  are  marks  too, 
in  some  books,  of  compilation,  of  editorial  revision, 
and  of  the  quotation  and  the  use  of  earlier  writers. 
There  are  also  statements,  scientific,  historical,  and 
archaeological,  which  must  be  tested  by  the  gener- 
ally recognized  principles  of  criticism.  All  this  is 
demanded  by  every  modern  school  of  biblical  in- 
terpretation. This  is  literary,  historical,  or  higher 
criticism. 

3.  It  was  recognized  by  the  Syrian  school  of 
interpreters  in  the  fourth  and  not  again  until  the 
sixteenth  century,  that  the  Bible  was  the  product 
of  certain  times ;  that  it  grew  out  of  the  soil  of 
ancient  days,  and  carries  in  itself  the  marks  of 
those  days ;  that  its  truest  interpretation  followed 
a  study  of  those  times.     Though  the  background 


THE   DRIFT  OF   BIBLICAL   RESEARCH  21 

of  the  New  Testament  was  comparatively  well 
known  a  half-century  ago,  the  Old  Testament  has 
become  a  new  book  historically  within  the  last  forty 
years.  The  entire  period  of  the  Old  Testament, 
from  Abraham  to  Nehemiah,  now  lies  on  a  new 
background.  Israel's  rise,  progress,  decline,  and 
fall,  before  the  mighty  empires  of  the  East,  can 
now  be  followed  in  their  awful  reality  by  the  clear 
light  of  the  records  of  their  powerful  contempora- 
ries. The  prophet's  arraignment  of  Egypt,  Baby- 
lon, and  Assyria,  and  his  condemnation  of  the  gods 
of  the  nations,  are  forceful  and  fearful  in  the  light 
of  the  character  of  these  deities  in  the  East  and 
the  West  as  revealed  on  the  monuments  of  those 
old  peoples. 

Though  some  early  critics  paid  slight  regard  to 
these  revelations,  the  brilliancy  of  this  new  light 
now  compels  recognition.  Sound  principles  of 
literary  and  historical  criticism  require  a  study  of 
the  times  out  of  which  a  given  product  sprang,  and 
are  forcing  all  scholars,  all  Bible  interpreters,  to 
pay  due  regard  to  this  new  and  ever-growing  im- 
portant element. 

4.  Every  early  method  of  Scripture  interpreta- 
tion, as  we  saw,  was  strongly  influenced  by  the 
intellectual  peculiarities  of  the  times.     This  is  in- 


22  THE   DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 

evitable  if  the  Bible  is  to  occupy  its  proper  place 
in  the  lives  of  the  thinkers  of  any  age.  For- 
tunately, this  era  of  Bible  study  has  laid  broad 
foundations  in  textual  work  for  grappling  with  the 
problems  of  the  day.  As  in  every  era  of  the  past, 
men  have  striven  to  find  some  principle  or  princi- 
ples of  harmonization  between  science,  in  its  broad 
sense,  and  revelation,  or  between  the  dominant 
thought  of  the  day  and  the  Bible. 

Two  prominent  phases  of  current  thought  are 
now  swaying  a  mighty  influence  on  some  phases 
of  biblical  scholarship.  The  first  of  these  is  the 
naturalistic  theory  of  evolution.  It  is  conceded 
that  there  is  a  large  element  of  truth  in  this  theory 
as  applied  to  nature  and  to  the  mind,  but  its  uni- 
versal validity  is  by  no  means  established.  There 
are  some  departments  of  investigation  where  evolu- 
tion is  not  found.  As  an  example,  a  leading  pro- 
fessor of  chemistry  lately  said,  "There  is  no 
evolution  in  my  science." 

Now  there  is  a  class  of  biblical  critics  and  inter- 
preters whose  methods  and  processes  are  almost 
entirely  dominated  by  this  phase  of  modern 
thought.  By  its  principles  they  are  compelled, 
especially  in  the  Old  Testament,  to  rearrange  its 
literature,  its  history,  its  laws,  and  its  doctrines. 


THE   DRIFT  OF   BIBLICAL   RESEARCH  23 

They  reconstruct  the  entire  Old  Testament,  not  by 
the  principles  of  higher  criticism  alone,  which  is  in 
and  of  itself  a  perfectly  legitimate  and  safe  method 
of  procedure,  but  by  a  distorted  higher  criticism, 
or  a  higher  criticism  inoculated  with  the  naturalistic 
theory  of  evolution.  This  fact  has  made  "  higher 
criticism  "  a  synonym  of  all  that  is  vicious  in  Bible 
study,  whereas  the  odium  should  be  heaped  on 
the  shoulders  of  the  naturalistic  evolutionary  critics. 
Now,  I  am  free  to  recognize  the  principle  of  ac- 
commodation, of  progression  in  Jehovah's  dealings 
with  his  growing  people,  of  the  natural  develop- 
ments of  language,  law,  and  doctrine;  but  to 
require  at  the  outset  that  the  whole  scheme  of 
revelation  and  redemption  should  be  subservient  to 
the  laws  of  a  naturalistic  evolution  is  equivalent  to 
the  obliteration  of  predictive  prophecy,  miracles, 
and  every  mark  which  distinguishes  the  Bible  from 
other  literature.  To  line  up  the  literature,  history, 
and  prophecy  of  the  Bible  and  compel  it  to  yield 
to  the  extreme  demands  of  a  naturalistic  evolution, 
we  must  treat  it  and  its  statements  as  no  other 
literature  and  history  in  all  the  past  or  present  is 
treated. 

The  second  phase  of  modern  thought  that  is  begin- 
ning seriously  to  affect  biblical  criticism  and  inter- 


24  THE  DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 

pretation  is  that  subjective  theory  of  the  Christian 
life  or  that  scheme  of  theology  now  termed  Ritsch- 
lianism.  This  composite  of  the  ideas  of  Kant, 
Schleiermacher,  Lotze,  and  Ritschl,  as  well  as  of 
the  disciples  of  the  last  named,  has  won  for  itself  a 
large  place  in  the  theological  world.  "  We  know 
things  not  as  they  are  in  themselves,  but  as  they 
are  for  us."  In  other  words,  the  subjective  ele- 
ment is  the  ultimate  standard  in  religion.  While 
Ritschl  has  made  valuable  contributions  to  the 
thought  of  this  day,  his  system,  even  in  its  modified 
forms  is,  in  a  large  sense,  self-centered,  subjective, 
and  without  any  authority  beyond  or  outside  of 
self.  The  endeavor  to  harmonize  the  doctrines  of 
the  Bible,  especially  of  the  New  Testament,  with 
this  in  many  ways  attractive  hypothesis,  has  already 
begun  to  show  its  results.  Its  action  is  exceed- 
ingly insidious,  but  none  the  less  certain.  It  has 
already  begun  its  work  in  the  disintegration  of 
some  of  the  essential  doctrines  of  the  Bible. 

The  attempts  already  made  by  the  harmonizers 
of  the  Bible  with  these  two  phases  of  modern 
thought  have  been  only  partially  successful.  Some 
of  the  results  which  may  be  regarded  as  alarming 
are:  (1)  The  expunging  from  Scripture  of  predic- 
tive prophecy ;  (2)  the  rejection  of  the  miraculous ; 


THE   DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH  25 

(3)  the  rejection  of  the  doctrine  of  the  pre-exist- 
ence,  miraculous  birth,  and  resurrection  of  Christ; 

(4)  the  non-acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  along  with  it,  the  doctrine  of  re- 
generation;  and  (5)  the  denial  of  the  proper  deity 
of  Jesus  Christ.  These  positions  are  already 
being  wrought  out  in  certain  schools  and  lines  of 
biblical  criticism  and  interpretation,  and  are  phases 
of  modern  theological  thought  that  demand  the 
most  earnest  attention  on  the  part  of  the  Christian 
scholarship  of  our  day. 

5.  While  not  unique  in  this  epoch,  there  is 
another  phase  of  biblical  scholarship  which  cannot 
be  passed  by.  There  are  others  engaged  in  this 
work  who  are  characterized  by  a  broad  scholarship, 
by  a  sympathetic,  glowing  Christian  life,  by  sound 
critical  and  exegetical  principles,  by  a  command- 
ing intellectual  fairness,  and  by  the  absence  of  that 
dogmatism  so  prevalent  in  the  post-Reformation 
period,  and  not  entirely  lacking  among  modern 
writers  on  biblical  themes.  These  men  are  by  no 
means  blind  to  progress,  nor  are  they  easily  capti- 
vated by  startling  and  fair-faced  theories.  They 
grant  full  recognition  to  facts,  and  proceed  as  fast 
and  as  far  as  these  facts  carry  them.  They  are 
ready  to  take  theories  for  theories,  and  as  soon  as 


26  THE   DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 

they  can  be  found  to  explain  the  facts,  to  accept 
them  as  true. 

This  class  of  scholars  is  not  popular  among  the 
radical  harmonizers,  nor  will  their  influence  count 
for  its  full  worth  while  the  present  campaign  is  be- 
fore the  public.  Every  age  in  the  past  has  had  its 
coterie  of  these  men,  and  as  we  look  back  upon 
them,  they  are  the  only  men  whose  lives  and  works 
have  left  a  permanent  precipitate  of  value  to  later 
generations  of  Scripture  interpreters. 

III.   SOME  PERMANENT  RESULTS  OF  MODERN 
METHODS. 

The  characteristics  of  this  modern  period  of  bib- 
lical criticism  and  interpretation  will  leave  some  re- 
sults of  permanent  value.  Without  attempting  in 
any  way  to  act  the  part  of  a  seer,  I  think  I  can 
discern,  from  the  history  of  Scripture  interpretation 
and  from  the  present  status  of  this  science,  some 
increments  of  value  which  will  remain  as  the  per- 
manent possessions  of  Bible  students.  I  shall  not 
attempt  to  name  more  than  a  few  of  these  results. 

1.  The  Bible,  which  in  former  ages  has  been  re- 
garded in  some  circles  as  a  kind  of  talisman,  is 
now,  and  always  will  continue  to  be,  accorded  a 
place  in  the   permanent  literature   of  the  world. 


THE   DRIFT  OF   BIBLICAL  RESEARCH  2^ 

Its  full  recognition  by  literary  men  of  the  present 
centuries  has  assigned  it  a  definite  and  undisputed 
value  as  literature.  This  fact  alone  has  won  for  it 
a  favor  hitherto  unknown  among  persons  whose 
training  and  trend  have  been  and  are  far  from 
Christian.  It  has  thus  become  the  object  of  study 
of  those  whose  motive  has  been  wholly  literary  and 
artistic.  Its  history  and  thought  have  become  so 
woven  into  public  utterances  that  some  of  the  most 
striking  figures  in  editorials  of  many  of  our  daily 
papers  are  taken  from  biblical  characters  and 
events.  Even  fiction  has  effectively  and  success- 
fully used  some  of  the  most  romantic  events  of 
Scripture.  Yes,  the  Bible  has  taken  an  important 
place  among  the  literatures  of  the  world,  and  is 
demonstrating  this  importance  by  the  public  recog- 
nition that  is  accorded  its  history,  its  poetry,  and 
its  laws. 

2.  Every  former  epoch  in  the  study  of  the  Bible, 
looked  upon  the  Israelites  of  the  Old  Testament  in 
a  false  light.  They  were  practically  the  only  na- 
tion of  ancient  times,  and  were  too,  a  kind  of  un- 
reality. Their  place  among  the  nations  of  their 
day  was  ill-proportioned  and  misjudged.  Their 
defections  from  Jehovah  were  misinterpreted,  and 
their  religious  conceptions  fore-shortened  by  inter- 


28  THE   DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 

preters,  because  of  their  practical  isolation  in  the 
ancient  world. 

But  now  we  have  a  different  picture.  Israel  was 
but  one  of  the  small  peoples  of  antiquity.  They 
occupied  a  minor  place  in  the  world's  commerce 
and  politics.  They  were  contemporaneous  with 
the  most  powerful  nations  of  antiquity  for  a  period 
of  about  one  thousand  years.  These  great  peoples, 
the  Egyptians,  the  Hittites,  the  Phoenicians,  the 
Assyrians,  the  Babylonians,  and  Persians,  all 
touched  and  influenced  the  political,  commercial, 
social,  and  religious  life  of  Israel.  Their  presence 
and  power  bore  its  fruits  in  Israel's  religious  de- 
cline and  fall.  In  a  word,  one  of  the  permanent 
results  of  present  biblical  research  will  be  the 
proper  recognition  of  Israel's  place  among  the  na- 
tions of  ancient  times,  and  thus  the  proper  inter- 
pretation of  so  much  of  the  Old  Testament  as  is 
dependent  on  the  new  historical  background  fur- 
nished by  the  inscriptions. 

3.  Another  result  which  we  may  look  for  as 
a  fruit  of  biblical  criticism  is  the  establishment 
of  the  true  place  of  monotheism  in  the  religion  of 
Israel  and  among  the  religions  of  the  world.  The 
attempt  to  evolve  monotheism  out  of  a  primitive 
polytheism,  as  made  in  Robertson  Smith's  •«  Re- 


THE   DRIFT  OF   BIBLICAL  RESEARCH  29 

ligion  of  the  Semites,"  and  a  number  of  more  re- 
cent writers,  is  weighed  down  with  untenable 
hypotheses.  This  theory  is  one  with  the  natural- 
istic evolution  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  attempts 
in  a  scientific  manner,  and  in  a  manner  accordant 
with  some  of  the  dominant  thought  of  our  times,  to 
account  for  the  multifarious  divinities  found  among 
ancient  peoples.  It  is  now  quite  as  generally  ac- 
cepted that  evolution  descends  as  well  as  ascends 
in  the  scale  of  being.  This  being  true,  and  the 
fact  that  the  farther  we  go  back  among  the  great 
nations  of  antiquity  the  fewer  in  number  the  deities 
become,  points  to  a  time  when  there  was  possibly 
in  the  dawn  of  antiquity  one  God.  In  a  word,  we 
may  expect  that  one  of  the  permanent  results  of 
this  age  of  biblical  research  will  be  a  determination 
of  the  true  place  of  monotheism  in  the  history  of 
Israel's  religion  and  in  the  religions  of  the  races  of 
the  earth. 

4.  The  full  and  cordial  recognition  of  the  Bible 
as  literature,  and  its  writers  as  men  with  individual 
characteristics,  the  assignment  of  Israel  to  its  true 
place  among  the  ancient  nations  of  the  East,  and 
the  determination  of  the  true  place  of  monotheism 
in  the  development  of  the  religion  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, demands  and  will  be  speedily  followed  by  a 


30  THE  DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 

reconstruction  of  the  doctrine  of  inspiration.  This 
reconstructed  doctrine  must  and  will  include  in  its 
formulce  not  simply  the  recognition  of  the  Bible's 
testimony  to  itself,  but  must  take  account  of  the 
humanity  of  men  as  its  recipients,  must  define 
more  exactly  the  specific  part  taken  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  its  production,  must  take  account  of  the 
assured  results  of  the  severest  genuine  textual  and 
historical  criticism,  and  must  formulate  the  external 
reasons  for  the  superiority  of  Scripture  to  the  sacred 
books  of  all  nations.  Neither  the  verbal,  the 
variously  defined  plenary,  the  dynamic,  nor  any 
other  mechanical  or  semi-mechanical  theory  of  in- 
spiration, as  hitherto  formulated,  will  hold  a  place 
among  the  final  results  of  modern  biblical  investi- 
gation. None  of  these  adequately  takes  into  ac- 
count the  great  variety  of  elements  which  enter  into 
the  origin,  growth,  unequal  character,  and  power 
of  Scripture.  This  reconstruction  must  be  a  doc- 
trine that  will  explain  all  the  facts  satisfactorily 
to  the  ardent  student  of  God's  word,  the  thor- 
oughly sympathetic  and  evangelical  investigator, 
and  the  devout  Christian  scientist  and  thinker. 

5.  But  the  choicest  result  of  the  biblical  research 
of  our  day  will  be  the  enthroning  of  the  Bible  in 
the  Christian  life.     Neither  creeds,  symbols,   nor 


THE   DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH  31 

tomes  of  philosophico-theological  dogma  will  satisfy 
the  cravings  of  the  human  soul.  The  tyrannous 
decrees  of  the  post-Reformation  period  will  never 
again  chain  down  and  lock  the  lids  of  the  Bible  in 
the  face  of  the  investigation  and  the  intelligent 
conclusions  of  this  age.  But  before  this  result  is 
reached  there  is  a  danger,  and  a  serious  one,  to 
which  the  men  of  our  day  are  exposed.  They  are 
called  upon  to  decide  between  works  which  are 
devoutly  evangelical  and  scholarly  and  works  which 
are  critically  scholarly,  but  permeated  with  methods 
of  harmonization  that  tone  down  some  of  the 
severest  Bible  doctrines  and  devitalize  some  of  its 
essential  truths.  The  danger-line,  the  demarcation 
between  the  essentials  of  the  Christian  life  and  the 
life  of  the  world,  are  in  many  persons  and  some 
churches  fast  fading  away.  This  free  and  easy 
method  of  belief  will  have  its  day,  and  ere  long  the 
genuine  evangelical  church  and  genuine  evangelical 
Christians  will  be  easily  distinguished  and  the 
Bible  will  be  again  enthroned  with  all  its  primitive 
and  divine  power.  The  ephemeral  and  evanescent 
literature  of  criticism,  permeated  by  unproved  and 
untenable  theories,  will  be  piled  away  in  the  anti- 
quarian alcoves  of  public  libraries  as  relics  of  one 
of  the  past  phases  of  biblical  research.     But  the 


32  THE   DRIFT  OF  BIBLICAL  RESEARCH 

Bible  itself,  recognized  as  religious  literature,  as 
the  one  great  source  and  the  basis  of  evangelical 
truth,  rightly  characterized  by  a  reconstructed  doc- 
trine of  inspiration,  will  be  supreme  in  the  Chris- 
tian life  of  the  future. 


Stockton.  Loll 


DATE  DUE 

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CAYLOKO 

1 

BS500 .P94 

The  drift  of  Biblical  research  past  and 


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